Piloting School

I had an opportunity to try a game of "Check Your 6!" at DaveV's last Wednesday and in addition to DaveV, I had some great instructors to help me for my first flight: Rob, Bill and KevinH. The scenario was inspired by the very first encounter during the Second World War, in 1939, between 9 Luftwaffe bombers en route to sink some British Navy ships in the Firth of Forth in Scotland and 6 British early Spitfire I's.

The 9 JU-88As in formation. As the Spitfires were getting closer, the bomber groups would get closer to each other and provide a dense defensive coverage.

My two Spitfires, "V" and "C", with green pilots. I was told by the veterans to hold my fire until the last to save my ammo.

Pilot Bill wondering which pub the squadron pilots should go to for celebration after this engagement.

The Spitfires engaged the bombers from their left flank. However, despite repeated strafing runs, the bombers were undamaged, and the Spitfires had to fly behind the enemy formation.

 DaveV, satisfied with the outcome of the battle so far.

One Spitfire down! This is not good. Also, because I had green pilots, one of them ran out of ammo very quickly and had to rush back to the base.

My Spitfire "V", steadily approaching a damaged bomber...

... Now having moved behind, ready to shoot at point blank. Steady... Steady...

From the cockpit, the pilot of "V" can see the rest of the German formation.

Daka! Daka! Daka! In the simultaneous exchange of machinegun fire, my plane was damaged but Spitfire "V" managed to shoot down a bomber. Yay!

Meanwhile, as the bombers were approaching the British Navy, there was intense combat and two Spitfires as well as one bomber were shot down. At this point, DaveV declared a victory for the British, because enough bombers were damaged to make them abort the mission. It was a tough battle, but very enjoyable and fun.

I really like "Check Your 6!". The rules are intuitive yet they let you feel the subtle differences between the various aircrafts of WW2.

Check Your 6! meets Dawn of Aces

Awhile ago I hosted crews from both The Fawcett Avenue Conscripts and Dawn of Aces. I first met Sam and Wilton when they demo'd Sam's WWI air combat game, Dawn of Aces, at Jim-Con. IIRC, aircraft activation is randomized, and planes move according to templates. Damage degraded their maneuverability and speed. Also, there is limited fuel and ammunition. Sam also made some very neat paper model biplanes for the game.

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We played a variation of the "Initial Encounter" scenario from the Battle of Britain book. We added some Me-110s (German twin-engined heavy fighters) to have some dogfighting.

Within their first couple of turns, Sam and Wilton got the hang of the fundamental dicta of CY6!: it's best to have both altitude and energy. One can trade altitude for energy, but maneuvering or climbing eats up energy tout de suite!

I got to try out my new Cigar Box ocean battle mat, with 3" hexes. Below, Sam maneuvers one of his Spitfires as Wilton looks on.

Bill and Frederick  ran some Spitfires, and most of us quaffed beers.



Spitfires cause some air-frame damage to a bomber!



Splash one bomber! Another Ju-88 and a Spitfire have also taken damage.





A sharp fight erupted as the fighters mixed it up. Several fighters ran out of ammo. Below, a Spitfire falls to the cannons of a Me-110 Destroyer.



Below, Frederick, Bill and Wilbert look on as some of the the bombers manage to reach the Royal Navy at anchor.





Below, the butcher's bill. Losing a whole flight of bombers cost the Germans the game.



Thanks again to Sam and Wilton for participating in our Thursday night shenanigans.

Sam expressed an interest in Sedition Wars. I will have to run a scenario...

Check Your 6! - Target: Portland

Some weeks ago I hosted another game of Check Your 6! This time it was a fairly large game, with Luftwaffe bombers and fighters opposed by RAF Spitfires. We were playing a modified version of the Target Portland scenario from the CY6! Battle of Britain campaign book.

Below, the German BF-109 fighters were piloted by Conscripts Brian and Kevin. I ran the JU-88 bombers flying in formation.



Below, a Vic of three Spitfires.



Conscript Frederick, and newbie flyer Malcolm ran the Spitfires.



The Brits drew first blood, erasing the German squadron leader in a hail of bullets. Frederick's wingman did enough damage by himself to auto-kill the bomber! The crew parachuted into captivity.



Both sides traded fighters as a Spitfire and Bf-109 went down, and a German bomber takes an engine hit. The Spitfire pilot bailed out OK; he was probably back in the cockpit the next day. The German fighter pilot did not fare so well, being killed as he tried to hit the chute. To the right of the frame, Duncan's ME-110 Zerstroyer fighters have shown up to party.



Brain, Kevin, and Duncan contemplate their moves.



The stricken bomber slowly drops out of formation.



The ME-110's and a couple of Bf-109's tie up the majority of the remaining defenders.



Frederick's flight leader damaged another bomber.



A Spitfire with airframe damage tried a tricky manoeuvre...



...but pulled its own wings off in the process! The Spitfire closest to the camera was set on fire by cannon fore from the German heavy fighters.



As another Spitfire drew a bead on a bomber, an escorting ME-110 executed a mid-air ram!



Both planes received engine damage and spun out of the fight. Meanwhile, fighters who had run out of ammo headed back to their respective board edges.



Most of the bombers managed to survive the gauntlet, dropping their bombs on Portland!



We don't play enough Check Your 6! It's fast to learn; both Malcolm and Duncan were new to the game, and picked up its basics within a couple of turns.

Check Your 6! - Breaking the Luftwaffe Campaign

Feb. 20th saw the latest installment of Bill and Jamie's Check Your 6! campaign. This long-running campaign has seen the 8th Air Force players winning the majority of their games against the hard pressed Luftwaffe.

Unlike our last several games, this scenario was a straight up dogfight, pitting 8 P-47 Thunderbolts against 8 Bf-109G's. However, only 3 of the German aircraft had 30mm cannons, the only weapon type amongst the involved aircraft that had a chance of destroying the tough P-47's.

Below, Glenn, DaveN, and Jamie contemplate the developing situation.






Brian observes over BillC's shoulder as two German rottes make the initial attacks; Brian and I each flew one of these two-plane elements, led by an ace (+3) pilot.



In a close-range exchange of fire, two American planes were shot down by the German aces'  heavy 30mm cannon, but Brian's ace was forced to take to his parachute.



My ace then ran out of 30mm ammo during another pass, as the Germans lost another plane.



Conscript Kevin flew brilliantly, setting up great shots. However, the dice were not with him. He missed by 1 pip on the dice at least 4 times, and the couple of times he did hit, he failed to damage the robust Thunderbolts. Meanwhile, the Germans kept losing plane...







...after plane...



Near the end of the game, my ace's wing man was trying to exit the board with a damaged engine. Seeing one of Bill's planes closing in for an easy kill, I invoked the "It's what he would have done" card and sent my ace head-on into Bill's guns, with only a pair of the Bf-109's mg's working. That German ace was lucky to just get knocked out of the fight with a damaged plane.



After that initial pass at the start of the game, the Americans didn't lose a plane. Conversely, the Germans ended up losing 6 of their 8 planes, with the majority of the German pilots surviving their bailouts. The Germans contented themselves with the thought that all these P-47's were stuck in with the Bf-109's, while somewhere else some FW-190's were tangling with the 8th Air Force bombers.

Check Your 6! - Hunting the Hunter

As Conscript Dallas and his lovely wife made their house ready for a move, several of us other Conscripts have taken over hosting duties over the last couple of months. Several weeks ago, I hosted a Check Your 6! game. I used a scenario freely downloaded from the Check Your 6! Yahoo Group.



Hunting the Hunter

Date: 8 July 1940, 16h00

Location: South Eastern Kent.

History: A Spitfire of 65 Squadron indulging in the dangerous pastime of a low level solo patrol became the prey of four Me109s of 4 Staffel, JG51 that stalked it unnoticed as it proceeded northwards. However, the Germans found that they had been inadvertently lured deep into enemy territory…

Luftwaffe Forces:
Elements of 4 staffel, JG51
2x Me109E-3 w/ 2 skilled (+1) aircrew
2x Me109E-1 w/ 2 green (+0) aircrew
Started in two formations of two aircraft, in the rear arc of the 65 Squadron Spitifre, speed 3, TAL 4. The formation leaders were 9 hexes away from the 65 Squadron Spitfire.
(Note: For the Me109E-1 use Me109E-4 statistics, except that the Me109E-1 has 4xLMG)

RAF Forces:
65 Squadron
1x Spitifre I w/ green (+0) aircrew
speed 1, TAL5, facing north

Red section, 74 Squadron
4x Spitfire I w/ 2 skilled (+1) aircrew and 2 green (+0) aircrew
Entered from the east, speed 4, TAL 6. 74 Squadron have spotted JG51

Below can be seen the initial setup. To the north is the lone recce Spitfire, which I flew. From the south and west are the Me109s, flown by Byron and Bill. From the east are the 74 Sqdn Spitfires, flown by Frederick and Kevin.The planes are a mix of Bandai and Takara 1:144 scale models. The neat dial bases are from Noble Minis, obtained through I-94 Enterprises.



Below, Bill and Byron contemplate the Luftwaffe move.







I put the 65 Sqdn Spitfire into a shallow dive and banked east, since just surviving and getting off the table would garner Victory Points.



The Luftwaffe ignored the solo patrol plane and turned to face the other RAF flight. The 65 Sqdn Spitfire proceeded to fly off the table unscathed.



The RAF concentrated their fire on a Rotte leader, shooting down one of Byron's planes in a single pass. The pilot failed his roll and was killed attempting to bail out.



The dogfight broke up as one of Bill's planes Immelmanned to get a bead on a Spitfire.





The Me109 below is angling away from the fight, heading for home. The Luftwaffe had to exit from the southeastern edge of the board.





The yellow nosed Me109 had run out of cannon ammo, which made the Luftwaffe decide to try and get away with what they could.



Bill's plane was hounded by the British...



...but canny maneuvering prevented the Spitfires from getting on his 6.





So, the remaining Luftwaffe planes were able to fly off safely.



Result: RAF Victory

This was an interesting, sharply fought affair. The game outcome was also very similar to what actually happened.

Historical Aftermath:
Four Spitfires of 74 Squadron on patrol over Dover spotted the Germans and dived into the attack. The Germans split up, but one of them was chased down at low level by 74 Squadron and fatally damaged. In its desperate attempts to get away, the Me109 was chased inland, eventually crash-landing near Elham. It was the first Me109 to fall onto British soil intact.